County trying to take former postal site

On July 31, the U.S. Postal Service's 20-year lease agreement with Leroy Viera for his property at 112 Pleasant St. expired. But now the County of Nantucket is laying claim to the half-acre lot and its three buildings by trying to follow through with a 51-year-old land taking.

PETER B. BRACE/The Independent Until this month, the post office leased this building from Leroy Viera for 20 years, but the county now says it may own the property. Arguing that a 1956 taking of the property is valid, the county believes it owns the land. But the Vieras believe differently, according to Viera's Hyannis attorney Donald Lynde, who was hired by Laura Viera Labbe to protect her father's property. Lynde said the land in question applies only to a small portion of Viera's property that the county needed for a drainage easement.

Leroy Viera bought the .57-ofan acre lot in 1946 and, said Lynde, has been receiving and paying property tax bills for all that time. Additionally, the 82- year-old Viera has had to secure building permits for various projects on his property over the years, incurring permit application fees, secured two approval-not-required plans from the Planning Board and granted the town an easement across his property for more drainage installations in 1989, all in his name, leading Lynde to the conclusion that the county and town have acknowledged that Viera owns the property.

"I think the town is acting in good faith at the present time to get more facts about the situation," said Lynde. "I can understand not wanting to just consent on removing the cloud [on the title] they created in 1956, but I think justice and fairness and the equities really rest in my client's favor and the county here has never asserted its right to the property and the town has never asserted that the town owned it."

The County has hired Nantucket Surveyors to survey the property to see who owns what. Town Manager Libby Gibson said that after speaking with Town Counsel Paul DeRensis she believes the County of Nantucket owns the property.

This discrepancy came to light several years ago, Gibson said, when Nantucket Surveyors came to the town after doing some sort of work involving the building being leased by the U.S. Postal Service with information implying that the county might have "ownership interests" in the property. Reviewed and discussed by DeRensis, and off and on by the Board of Selectmen and the County Commissioners, Gibson said that DeRensis advised her that it appears that the County of Nantucket is the lawful owner of 112 Pleasant St. as a result of the eminent domain taking in 1956.

"The county is obligated to protect its county interests and we have sought assistance from a professional engineer to survey the property to determine the exact nature and extent of those property interests," said Gibson.

Standing firm, Lynde wants the town to sign an affidavit admitting that the taking was from owners unknown, not from his client, Leroy Viera, and that it was, in effect, an illegal taking. If the county persists, Lynde said he plans to sue the county to protect Viera's property.

"We'll have to file suit either in the Massachusetts Land Court or the Nantucket Superior Court and name all the selectmen and look for equitable relief from the county's taking any more action," Lynde said. "What I'm trying to do is just save her [Laura Labbe] a lot of time and expense in going to court."

Viera's sole income had been from the lease with the U.S. Postal Service that Lynde said was $3,000 a month during the 20-year life of the lease with the Postal Service. With the lease agreement ending last week, Labbe is in the process of renovating the former Pleasant Street post office building and getting it ready to put back on the lease market in hopes of generating monthly income for her father.

"To me, this just seems like something where everybody in town knows who owns this property," said Lynde. "They depend on this property for their income, but her biggest fear is that they can't get a tenant because it's on county property."

For the county's part, Gibson said that it would not do anything until it is absolutely certain that the county owns this parcel of land that includes the parking lot at the corner of Daves and Pleasant streets.

"Certainly the county would not take any action regarding the current occupancy of the property until we have received the survey and can make a determination as to county ownership interests," said Gibson. "Unfortunately, this is not the first property ownership

quandary for the town and county." I